Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Lommi and Geezer Butler) made a rare television appearance when they performed a new song in the season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. less

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Lommi and Geezer Butler) made a rare television appearance when they performed a new song in the season finale of CSI: Crime Scene ... more

Photo: CBS Photo Archive, CBS Via Getty Images

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Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath performs at Lollapalooza on opening day in Chicago's Grant Park on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath performs at Lollapalooza on opening day in Chicago's Grant Park on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

Musicians Bill Ward, (from left) Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath and producer Rick Rubin appear at a press conference to announce their first new album in 33 years and a world tour in 2012 at the Whiskey A Go-Go on November 11, 2011 in West Hollywood, California. less

Musicians Bill Ward, (from left) Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath and producer Rick Rubin appear at a press conference to announce their first new album in 33 years and a world tour ... more

Black Sabbath reunites, records an album, goes on tour, comes to Texas and doesn't stop in San Antonio?

Sacrilege.

The legendary British band, which plays the Frank Erwin Center in Austin on Saturday to promote its first No. 1 album, “13,” shares a colorful, controversial history with the Alamo City dating to the 1970s. The most notorious moment was in 1982, when a drunken Ozzy Osbourne urinated on the Alamo Cenotaph.

The singer was banned from playing city-owned venues for years afterward, then made nice with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and has played S.A. a dozen times since 1992.

So it's truly bittersweet that the band isn't returning on its latest reunion tour, especially in light of co-founding guitarist Tony Iommi's serious health concerns. This truly could be the last go-round.

An AT&T Center spokesman said Black Sabbath and the venue wanted a San Antonio tour stop, but the available dates didn't work out for either party.

The tour did not reach out to the Alamodome, where Black Sabbath and Osbourne have performed.

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Instead, the tour heads to the smaller and older Austin venue. Some industry insiders call that decision, at best, kind of dumb. At its worst, a snub.

That's because Osbourne, rock's “Prince of Darkness,” looms large in S.A., a city often designated the heavy metal capital of the world, a cherished bragging right among headbangers since the 1970s.

Osbourne is the architect of the genre, though he didn't always call Black Sabbath's music “metal.”

“It was heavy rock,” Osbourne said during a recent conference call with journalists about the band's early sound.

Black Sabbath received some of its first radio airplay in San Antonio.

“I started in 1976 with them,” said concert promoter Jack Orbin, owner of Stone City Attractions, who's booked the band several times. “They were the pioneers of heavy metal and, therefore, they helped put San Antonio on the map. A lot of people say San Antonio is the capital of metal and hard rock, and that's probably true.

“But more important, Black Sabbath and heavy metal bands like Judas Priest helped put San Antonio on the map.”

Orbin still considers San Antonio to be the heavy metal mecca and Black Sabbath “the greatest heavy metal band of all time.” So what's wrong with this picture?

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Quotable Ozzy OsbourneAbout record producer Rick Rubin pushing the band to return to the sound of its first album: He just said forget formula, just forget it. I couldn't for the life of me understand what he was trying to say. I'd go to him, "Rick, I don't really understand what you're trying to do. We are heavy metal, we're supposed to be the godfathers of heavy metal, so what are you saying?" And he said, "Just go listen."

About Black Sabbath's "13" hitting No. 1: But now after 45 years up the road, and we get our first No. 1, it's kind of a hard thing to swallow, you know? It's great. I'm not saying I don't want it to be No. 1, but I just don't understand why now, you know? I mean, we've been around for a long time, in one way or another.

About being called the Prince of Darkness: It's a name. I didn't wake up one morning and go, "You know what I'm going to call myself." It started as a joke name, really. I'm OK with it, you know? You know, it's better than being called an (expletive).

About Tony Iommi's battling cancer while making "13": I thought, "My God, man, he is Ironman." You know, I mean, my hat goes off to him, because I mean, believe me, I don't know if you've ever known anybody who had chemotherapy before, but that really knocks the life out of you, man ... I know from firsthand with my wife that treatment for cancer is not like doing a line of coke and going to a disco. It knocks the crap out of you, you know?

About the possibility that this is the last chapter: Well, I wasn't really happy with the way it ended before, but this album went to No. 1 and it's been received really well all over the world. I know I can now rest my head and die a happy man.Source: MSO transcript of Ozzy Osbourne July 10 teleconference.

“The idiots that are doing the Black Sabbath tour don't understand that this is the place where they belong,” he said. “We would never think of doing Black Sabbath without including San Antonio. It's a travesty. It's ridiculous. Someone's not doing their homework.”

“We supported them from Day 1,” said Smith, who praised Orbin for bringing Black Sabbath early and often to the area.

San Antonio's hard rock and metal credentials are intact and strong as ever, Smith added.

“There's no question,” he said. “KISS, KEXL and Jack Orbin took chances on groups and acts and made it such a metal town. It's always been an enigma. It's bigger than life.”

But he stopped short of calling Black Sabbath bypassing the city a total snub.

“There are way too many reasons, way to much politics and way too few dates,” Smith said. “The business comes first. Don't take it personally, San Antonio. It's very possible they couldn't get the (dates) that they needed.”

“The hard rock bands I did get into were Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and I was way into Black Sabbath. I was never a big heavy metal guy, but I was into those bands,” said Sahm, who saw Black Sabbath in concert multiple times, including the date of the infamous Alamo incident.

He still has his ticket stubs.

“It just had a very dark sound to it,” he said. “I remember kind of being scared of it as a kid, like, 'Wow, what is that?'”

Sahm believes his dad's hometown is still the heavy metal capital. He credits the radio personalities of the day who played the music, especially at KISS.

“Joe Anthony started something in the day,” he said. “I don't think you can talk about heavy metal and San Antonio without giving credit to Joe Anthony and Lou Roney and those cats. Joe became the godfather. San Antonio seemed to be the hub of (heavy metal).”

In that context, Sahm is shocked that the band is not coming to S.A. on what could be its last tour.

“I can't even believe that. There's got to be some kind of logistics to that because for Black Sabbath to not come to San Antonio is amazing.”